Dropping Angles: Creative's Short Term Memory

We gather here today in memoriam of the wrestlers and angles that the WWE has completely given up on: 

#1. The Nexus 

Yes, this event happened several years ago (2010), but it bears repeating in light of recent events. The Nexus was a group of aspiring wrestlers from the original NXT, back when it was a competition to get a contract from WWE. Wade Barrett led the rookies onto Raw and they proceeded to demolish the set. Afterwards, the Nexus began targeting veteran wrestlers for vicious attacks. One frequent target was John Cena. 

The brutality and relentlessness of the Nexus led to a showdown at SummerSlam, with The Nexus (Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, David Otunga, Skip Sheffield [Ryback], Michael Tarver, and Darren Young) taking on Team WWE (John Cena, Edge, Chris Jericho, Daniel Bryan, Bret Hart, John Morrison, and R-Truth) in an elimination tag team match. The match came down to John Cena against Barrett and Gabriel. Cena pinned Gabriel and, not even 30 seconds later, made Barrett tap out to the STF. 

Jericho and Edge have both gone on record saying it was a poor booking decision to have Cena so easily overcome the leader of Nexus, but they also said that Cena pushed ahead with it. In fact, they say the original plan had Barrett going over Cena, but Cena pushed for a change in the outcome. Jericho and Edge were both okay with putting over younger talent. Cena, apparently, was not. And as you’ll see, it’s a trait Cena has yet to drop. 

#2. Bo Dallas 

Bo Dallas appeared and entered the Royal Rumble in 2013. He was the NXT representative in the match and actually eliminated Wade Barrett. He returned to NXT and honed his character as a heel who thought he was a babyface. He won the NXT Championship, proving his ability to carry a title and work a main event program. He returned to the main roster as an inspiration character, telling other wrestlers that they could do better in life is they simply “BO-lieve.” 

He came back on a long winning streak. In wrestling, a winning streak typically means you are being built for a title run. Dallas carried a long streak that actually helped to grow his heel character status. That is, until he lost to R-Truth in a random match on Raw. Dallas proceeded to beat down Truth after the match. He lost again to Truth on the next Smackdown. What was a great heel character slowly became relegated to lower and lower places on the card. He’s now pestering Jack Swagger, saying Swagger is disappointing America by losing to Rusev. 

Dallas is a good wrestler. His character is utterly annoying, which is great for a heel. He’d make a really good Intercontinental or United States Champion. Instead, it looks like he’s going to feud with Jack Swagger for a bit. 

#3. (Antonio) Cesaro 

Antonio Cesaro is one of the most gifted athletes to enter the WWE in a long time. He’s naturally strong, as evidenced by much of his in-ring work. His early run as the snobby Swiss wrestler who won the US Title provided glimpses of what he could be. 

Cesaro joined Zeb Colter’s Real Americans team, a heel tag team. His moveset, though, is suited to a babyface. The high impact European uppercut, the Alpamare Waterslide, and the Big Swing really bring the fans to their feet. Which is bad, since WWE is dedicated to keeping Cesaro heel. At WrestleMania XXX, Cesaro entered the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal and won. The match came down to Cesaro and Big Show. Cesaro scooped up Big Show in a move reminiscent of Hogan and Andre the Giant. He dumped Big Show out of the ring to win. 

The next night on Raw Hulk Hogan presented Cesaro with the battle royal trophy. Colter took the mic and started to talk about how he was the reason Cesaro was doing so well. Cesaro took the mic from Colter and said he was not a Zeb Colter guy, but rather he was a Paul Heyman guy. The teaming with Heyman didn’t last long, as Heyman used every available minute of screen time to promote Brock Lesnar. Cesaro was relegated to low-level heel. The most impressive athlete in WWE can’t catch a break. 

#4. Damien Sandow 

What happened to Damien Sandow? Two words: John Cena. I could go on for days telling you how Cena is responsible for the failures of WWE to build better superstars (and I will in the Wyatt Family section). 

Damien Sandow won one of the Money in the Bank briefcases back when there were two championships. He won the chance to go after the World Heavyweight Championship. Apparently, Sandow was a pet project of Triple H. Like Sheamus, Triple H saw potential in Sandow and brought him in as a snobbish heel with a high level of intelligence. Sandow won the briefcase and held it for a quite a while, even feuding over the case with Cody Rhodes, his former teammate. 
Then John Cena came back early from injury and defeated Alberto Del Rio for the World Heavyweight Championship. On Raw, as Cena was talking up his victory, Sandow came out. He claimed he was not going to cash in, but he then proceeded to beat Cena down with the briefcase, targeting Cena’s surgically repaired arm, rendering it useless. 

Sandow turned to the referee and cashed in his title shot. And then SuperCena appeared. John Cena cleanly defeated Damien Sandow with only one arm. He even hit his finisher, the Attitude Adjustment. It was the beginning of the end for Sandow. The running theory was that Sandow angered someone within the WWE’s hierarchy. 

#5. Xavier Woods / Kofi Kingston / Big E (Langston) 

A few weeks ago on Raw, Kofi Kingston and Big E teamed up to take on Ryback and Curtis Axel. Rybaxel won the match, leaving a stunned Kofi and Big E standing in the ring. At that point, Xavier Woods came walking down to the ring dressed in a suit. He grabbed a mic and delivered a cryptically awesome promo about how they could not wait for things to be handed to them, but instead had to start taking. The next episode of Raw featured the group in the backstage area watching the Usos match. They came to ringside for the end of the match, though they did not get involved. 

On Main Event, Kofi and Big E teamed up and displayed a level of aggression they’d not shown in…well, ever. But, in what has become standard operating procedure for WWE Creative, the angle was unceremoniously dropped. The closest thing we’ve come to seeing the trio together was on Raw for Hulk Hogan’s birthday celebration, where they were all standing to the same side of the stage wearing similar colors.

There’s still hope that Creative will bring this angle back up. Kofi was on Raw Monday night in a losing effort to Bo Dallas, but he was wearing the red and black that the group had taken to wearing. Maybe these little clues are left behind as a bread crumb trail for anyone hoping the group will survive in a world desolate due to Creative’s neglect. Maybe we’ll see Kofi, Big E (hopefully with Langston reattached to his name), and Xavier Woods pop back up to start a solid new stable. 

But I’m afraid we’re at a point where, if an angle or wrestler doesn’t get over immediately, Creative simply drops their angle. There was rumor that the idea of teaming up three black wrestlers would be considered offensive or racist. But most hardcore fans wanted to see the group. 

#6. The Wyatt Family 

Basically, this is what Cena did to the Wyatts...

The WWE has apparently decided that the Wyatt Family doesn’t deserve a good story. Spoiler Alert: Bray Wyatt will lose twice on SmackDown. I don’t know who in WWE hates the Wyatts, but they obviously have a lot of pull. Wyatt’s downward slide began with Creative deciding that he didn’t need to look like a threat against John Cena. The “poop joke promo” superstar needlessly won at WrestleMania XXX in a match that could’ve established a new monster heel. But no, it was more important to the John Cena Toddler Fan Base that good triumph over evil. 

At the next pay-per-view, Cena once again took on Bray Wyatt, this time in a cage match. The point of a cage match is to stop the wrestlers from getting out of the ring, to stop other wrestlers from getting into the ring, and to basically force a resolution to a match. But at this PPV, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan constantly interfered. Even with that, Cena was about to escape the cage and win. He was stopped by a small child with a sore throat (and a poorly distorted voice). This simple trick apparently scared Cena so much that he stumbled backward into Wyatt’s waiting arms for a Sister Abigail. It was the only time Wyatt would win in this feud. 

The next PPV witnessed a resolution to their feud. Their Last Man Standing match was actually quite good. No, it wasn’t on par with the Triple H vs Chris Jericho Last Man Standing match at Fully Loaded in July 2000, but it was still good. The match ended with John Cena literally burying Bray Wyatt to stop him from getting back up. Why Cena had to win the feud is beyond me. The only thing I can figure is that Creative was afraid if Cena lost that toddlers would stop guilt-tripping their parents into buying neon-colored crap. 

As if that wasn't bad enough, on last Monday’s Raw, John Cena was fed Bray Wyatt. Cena was coming off the most humiliating defeat of his career, a 16-minute squash match in which Brock Lesnar simply destroyed Cena. So on Raw Cena interrupted a “Hall of Fame” Forum featuring Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, and Shawn Michaels. Hulk Hogan was so slobberingly adoring of Cena that I was actually waiting for him to pull a Frank Caliendo and say “John, I wrote you a poem…” 

Cena was advertised to fight Bray Wyatt. Cena won by disqualification, setting up a six man tag match with the Wyatt Family taking on Cena, Big Show, and Mark Henry. The good guys once again won, with Cena simply brushing Wyatt off like a cow swatting at gnats with its tail. At the Smackdown taping Tuesday night, Bray Wyatt was advertised to take on Roman Reigns, or, as we should probably call him, Samoan John Cena. Reigns won the match to open the show, then he was set to team up with Show and Henry to take on the Wyatt Family. Of course, the good guys won again. 

During all of this, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan had engaged in an epic feud with the Usos over the Tag Team Championships. For reasons unknown to anyone except Creative, the Usos continually won the matches in which the titles were on the line. Finally, the Creative team simply removed the Wyatt Family from title contention. The Usos were out of opponents, but Creative still took away the Wyatts. It’s forced Creative to turn Goldust and Stardust heel. Having Harper and Rowan win the titles would’ve created multiple new feuds. But apparently Creative would rather have the babyfaces continually rise above. 

I’m not sure what Bray Wyatt did to anger WWE Creative, but they have done a brutally fantastic job at destroying the Wyatt Family’s momentum. These guys were pitched a monster heels on their arrival. They took out Kane. Wyatt demolished Kofi Kingston and R-Truth. He entered a prolonged angle with Daniel Bryan, leading to Wyatt winning cleanly at Royal Rumble. But, for whatever reason, Creative decided that the audience didn’t need a new heel in the upper tier of the roster. No, it was more important that SuperCena overcome the odds and win. Heaven forbid that the John Cena Toddler Fan Base ever think that the forces of good can be defeated by the forces of evil.